Comedy Crafter Paul Feig To Re-Team With Universal For The Better Woman

With news that a Bridesmaids sequel may be doomed, Universal has revealed a new strategy for milking the massively popular, female-fronted blockbuster for all its worth. Variety reports that Universal has tapped Bridesmaids director Paul Fieg to helm the in-development comedy The Better Woman. Penned by Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino, the film will center on a successful, young executive whose self-image is devastated once her boyfriend leaves her for an older woman. Obsessed and depressed, she seeks out this woman and befriends her in hopes of learning why her former beau prefers her. Along the way, she apparently "rediscovers herself" and presumably finds a new love considering it's being billed as a rom-com.

There are a few red flags here. The first is that this premise seems painfully vapid and potentially cringe inducing, and reports that Reese Witherspoon once circled the project are hardly encouraging as she's made nothing but mindless dreck for years. Additionally troublesome is Universal's over eagerness to get any comedy to theaters that has even the slightest ties to its international 2011 hit that brought in more than $288 million worldwide. Which means Feig may be The Better Woman's saving grace. He's proved a savvy helmer of such smart series as Arrested Development, Parks and Recreation, and Freaks and Geeks, which he also created. Then after proving himself with the initially underestimated Bridesmaids last summer, Feig was careful in plotting his next move. Last fall, he collaborated with Universal on the third Bridget Jones film , but walked away after submitting a draft of the rom-com script, and now he's been delicately sidestepping talks on a potentially Kristen Wiig-less Bridesmaids 2. All this suggests that Feig's signing on to The Better Woman is a sign that he's finally found a film worth settling down with.

No production schedule or release date has yet been announced for The Better Woman.